In African hot spots, journalists forced into exile

February 16, 2010 12:57 AM ET

By Tom Rhodes

High numbers of local journalists have fled several African countries in recent years after being assaulted, threatened, or imprisoned, leaving a deep void in professional reporting. The starkest examples are in the Horn of Africa nations of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, where dozens of journalists have been forced into exile. Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and the Gambia have also lost large segments of the local press corps in the face of intimidation and violence.

Those who flee their native countries pay a high
price: Facing cultural, language, and legal obstacles, they struggle to find
work in their profession. CPJ research shows that only one in three is able to
continue working as a journalist. But the public also pays dearly for the
exodus of professional, local reporters from these countries, all of which have
had internal strife with international implications. Not only had domestic
audiences relied upon these front-line journalists, so too had international
reporters, who used local coverage as a base of information and depended on
local reporters for the sort of sources and knowledge only a native can have.

Yet it is not simply a shortage of reliable
information that has resulted, journalists say. Perversely, in some instances,
the exodus of professional journalists has enabled governments or political
factions to exert editorial control over once-independent news outlets. “The
high exile rates of journalists have not brought a lack of information so much
as misinformation,” said Abdiaziz Hassan, a local correspondent for Reuters in
Somalia. “It incites the conflict further.”

Among the hardest hit has been Radio Shabelle, a
Somali station that had earned a reputation for independent reporting. Situated
in Mogadishu’s Bakara Market—home to a number of media outlets, but also a base
of operations for the militant insurgent group Al-Shabaab—the station has seen
five of its journalists killed, numerous staffers threatened, and several
forced into exile. Without sufficient management on site, the station has been
susceptible to pressure from Al-Shabaab to censor its coverage and even
broadcast the group’s propaganda, according to Mohamed Amin, a former Shabelle
deputy director now in exile.

In all, CPJ has documented the cases of 30 Somali
journalists who have gone into exile this decade, the fourth-highest tally
worldwide during the period. CPJ’s
data on exiled journalists include only those journalists who fled due to
work-related persecution, who remained in exile for at least three months, and
whose whereabouts and activities are known. Local organizations using different
criteria report higher numbers. The Union of Exiled Somali Journalists, for
example, counts as many as 80 exiled reporters. Most of these exiles have fled
in the face of astonishing violence: Twenty-one Somali journalists have been
killed in direct connection to their work since 2005, some at the hands of
government forces, many at the hands of militant groups such as Al-Shabaab.

Here’s another common thread: Most of the exiled
Somali journalists speak English. That’s no coincidence, noted former Shabelle
reporter Ahmednor Mohamed, who said insurgents have targeted English-speaking
journalists in Mogadishu as “spies.” That, in turn, has a domino effect on
international reporting.

Among international news outlets, only the satellite
channels Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya maintained an ongoing presence in the
country in late year. Paul Salopek, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has covered
the continent for many years, noted that few international journalists even
venture into Somalia, particularly Mogadishu, because of the severe risks.
International correspondents are forced
instead to report by phone from Nairobi, Kenya. “That’s how isolated we’ve
become from the story on the ground,” said Salopek, who called war and drought
conditions in Somalia “one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.”
Without reliable local reporters to provide baseline information, the task of
telling the Somali story to the world has become extraordinarily difficult.

“There’s little question
that the decimation of Somali journalists—by assassination or through exile—has
reduced the quantity and quality of news coming out of that country,” Salopek
said. “They were the first responders, if you will, to breaking news in
Somalia. And most of them are gone.”

In Ethiopia and
Eritrea, mass imprisonments of journalistsearly in the decade have been
followed by years of steady repression. The threat of jail has led at least 41
Ethiopian journalists and 24 Eritreans into exile, CPJ data show, although
local groups suggest the figures may be much higher.

Ethiopian authorities have
regularly used the law as leverage against the press, enacting two pieces of legislation
in 2009 that further repress news coverage. An antiterrorism measure sets
prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who “writes, edits, prints,
publishes, publicizes, or disseminates” statements that the government vaguely
describes as advancing terrorist interests. The deceptively named Mass Media
and Freedom of Information Proclamation stiffens penalties for libel and grants
government prosecutors authority to censor publications on national security
grounds.

For an Ethiopian press
corps that saw 13 of its colleagues jailed in a massive 2005 crackdown, the
passage of new, restrictive legislation sent a clear message: The government of
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was again ready to imprison critical reporters and
editors. “Everything became illegal,” said Wondrad Debretsion, an Ethiopian
editor who recently went into exile. “Even state-sponsored reporters have
started fleeing the country.” The continuing exodus has weakened the
independence of the remaining Ethiopian press. The Awramba Times, a once critical publication, has taken a newly sympathetic
stance toward the government, said Debretsion, who served as the paper’s deputy
director before leaving the country in July.

No government has decimated the press corps as
thoroughly as that of Eritrea, where in 2001 the administration of President
Isaias Afewerki rounded up 18 critical editors and reporters, jailed them
without trial, and held them in secret locations. The crackdown pushed other
independent reporters into exile, and effectively shuttered the independent
press. The government’s heavy-handed repression has also forced out
state-employed journalists, one of whom, Paulos Kidane, died while trying to
flee the country on foot for Sudan in 2007.

Gambian authorities have also used intimidation
tactics: Seven editors and reporters were jailed for a month in 2009 on
trumped-up charges of sedition; journalist “Chief” Ebrima Manneh was believed
to be held in a secret government jail; and the government continued to show
little interest in solving the 2004 murder of editor Deyda Hydara. Such tactics
have prompted at least 13 journalists to flee since 2007, according to the
Gambia Press Union. That number becomes eye-opening when one considers that the
Gambia has just two independent newspapers and a population of 1.7 million. The
journalists who remain often censor their work or simply avoid sensitive
topics.

“There is no incentive for in-depth reporting or
investigative journalism anymore as it can land one in trouble with
authorities,” said Musa Saidykhan, a Gambian journalist who fled after being
tortured by state security agents in 2008.

Government harassment has also played a role in
Rwanda, where at least 10 independent journalists have fled. Half of those journalists had contributed
reporting to foreign media outlets, CPJ research shows. Robert Mukombozi, a Rwandan whose work as
a correspondent for the Ugandan daily The Monitor had offended
authorities, was ordered out of the country in 2009 on fabricated charges that
he lacked citizenship. Lucie Umukundwa, a
correspondent for the U.S. government-funded Voice of America, left in 2006
after unidentified men attacked her brother in reprisal for her reporting.

“I was used to arrests and
intimidations,” Umukundwa told CPJ, “but this was the first time my family was
attacked.”

Only two independent weeklies remain in Rwanda’s
capital, Kigali. The director of one of those papers, Charles Kabonero, said
the loss of his colleagues has not only lowered professional standards, it has
left remaining journalists feeling isolated and less interested in pursuing
independent stances. The private weekly Rushashya, which had been known
as a critical news source, publicly announced in 2009 that it would take a more
pro-government editorial stance.

Many exiled African journalists face great
challenges and continuing risk. The Union of Exiled Somali Journalists said about half of its
members eke out a precarious existence on the dangerous streets of Kenya’s
capital, Nairobi. Most fled so precipitously that they took few belongings or
identification papers. The exile union, along with the National Union of Somali
Journalists, both said they had received reports that Somali exiles have faced
arbitrary harassment and detention at the hands of Kenyan police.

The Rwandan Mukombozi told
CPJ that members of his family had been assaulted twice in Kigali after he was
forced into exile. “All that psychological pressure more than triples when such
incidents happen,” he said by e-mail, “and the restricted communication between
the exiled journalist and his/her family makes the harm on both sides
enormous.”

Gambian journalists seeking refuge typically move to
Dakar, Senegal, but they are rarely at ease because of the suspected presence
of Gambian security agents, said Demba Jawo, former head of the Gambian Press
Union. “Sometimes exiled Gambian journalists feel compelled to move
periodically to avoid detection from these security agents,” he said.

Even those in safe circumstances face enormous
professional challenges. At least 48 Zimbabwean journalists have been forced
into exile since 2000, most of them in the early half of the decade during
sustained harassment by President Robert Mugabe’s government, according to CPJ
research. In interviews with CPJ, many of these Zimbabwean journalists have
said that it took years for them to re-establish themselves professionally and
secure sound economic footings for their families. Many had to abandon
journalism as a career.

Yet some who revived their careers also created a
vibrant diaspora news media. Gerry Jackson, an exiled Zimbabwean journalist,
launched the London-based SW Radio in 2001. The station broadcasts programming into Zimbabwe in English
and in the Shona and Ndebele languages. Wilf Mbanga, another exile, started The Zimbabwean newspaper in 2005. Based in his new home in
England, Mbanga produces a weekly that circulates in the United Kingdom, South
Africa—and Zimbabwe. Abel Mutasakani, who left for South Africa in 2004, joined
with other colleagues to start the Web publication ZimOnline.

Ethiopian and Eritrean exiles have similarly launched
Web sites, typically focusing on events back home. While limited in what they
can report firsthand, these sites receive and report leaked documents,
interview disaffected government sources, and offer critical political
commentary.

The irony that exiled journalists are getting
independent news and views into their native countries is not lost on people
such as the Zimbabwean Geoff Hill. “Since nationalizing the press in 1981,
Mugabe has done his best to control the flow of information, but now there are
so many leaks in the bucket, it is more like a watering can,” said Hill,
himself an exiled journalist who still reports on the country. “Much of the
credit for this must go to the hard breed of Zimbabwean journalists—both at
home and in exile—who refuse to surrender.”